New Cable Deal For Miami Calls For Rebuilt System

By Candice Ventra
As several companies and groups vie to play host to a Network Access Point here, BellSouth is jockeying to get a leg up to land the job.

Executives at BellSouth are talking with some "tier one" companies about joining them in hosting a Network Access Point, popularly known as a NAP  a data relay station for the Internet, said Spero Canton, BellSouth spokesperson.

Although names of the companies are not being released, he said, they include other telecom companies and Internet providers.

BellSouth would manage the facility, he said.

"Many of these companies have expressed an interest in being involved in the generation of the NAP," Mr. Canton said. "We are trying to see now if it’s economically feasible. Then we wilith making a decision."

He said no deadline has been set for companies to respond. BellSouth will not release company names, he said, but the talk of the town is that the facility is in northwest Miami-Dade.

If BellSouth gets to manage the NAP, Mr. Canton said, it would generate revenue by charging management fees and connection charges to companies that use it.

This announcement comes a few months after BellSouth executives protested a bid award the county granted to AT&T to install pay phones at Miami International Airport. BellSouth representatives claimed the bid officer had a conflict of interest. The protest was denied by county commissioners.

Mr. Canton said BellSouth’s interest in hosting a NAP is not to reinforce ties with the county.

"I don’t think there is any wedge between BellSouth and the county," Mr. Canton said. "We came to terms on a very amicable basis."

Meanwhile Internet Coast  a group of Internet company executives, and representatives for educational institutions and economic development corporations in the tri-county region  are trying to lure a NAP to Miami’s Park West.

The NAP could possibly be housed in a 700,000-square-foot Park West facility proposed by Terremark and the Miami Heat.

The two entities have announced plans to develop the telecom building.